The lunar lander built by aerospace company Intuitive Machines launched on an eight-day journey to the moon for NASA’s water-hunting mission PRIME-1. The Athena lander shared its first images from orbit, showing Earth in the background. It is one of two American-made uncrewed lunar landers on their way to the moon’s surface, with Firefly Aerospace operating the other spacecraft named Blue Ghost. NASA’s Artemis program aims to pave the way for astronauts to return to the moon by 2027.
The Athena lander is set to land near a plateau known as Mons Mouton, further south than Intuitive Machines’ first lander Odysseus. The main experiment onboard Athena is NASA’s PRIME-1, which involves drilling and extracting resources such as water ice that could be used for drinking, breathing, and rocket fuel for future expeditions to Mars. Other objectives include testing a communications system and deploying a drone capable of hopping across the lunar surface.
The spacecraft reached its intended orbit and established communication with mission controllers on the ground. Athena is preparing to fire its engines to correct its trajectory as it heads towards lunar orbit, with plans to land on the moon’s south pole on March 6. The IM-2 mission aims to study potential resources below the lunar surface to support future space exploration efforts.
Note: The image is for illustrative purposes only and is not the original image of the presented article.
